Naruto was standing in front of Azusa's desk patiently waiting for the Headhunter to give him his assignment. Azusa handed Naruto a folder as soon as he was finished reading and said, "Here is your next mission Naruto. I know it seems that the target deserves a D rank rather than the C rank. However, we don't know a great deal about this target. I trust that you will remember to keep this in mind while you are on your hunt."
After bowing, Naruto replied, "Don't worry. Your niece made sure that I got the point about underestimating a situation." The blond hunter received a small glare from Azusa and then left the office. Naruto very quickly made his way to one of the cubicles and began to read the mission folder.
NAME: Jun Bakura
AGE: unknown, believed to be in his early teens
RANK: observed skills have him at D rank, potentially higher
PLACE OF BIRTH: Unknown
REASON FOR EXTERMINATION: Has been attacking warehouses and small caravans on the eastern side of the Fire Country/Tea Country boarder.
Besides the image of Jun Bakura, which Naruto noted showed Jun wearing an eye patch, there wasn't a whole lot of information on the target. In all honesty, the lack of information made Naruto nervous. Lack of information wasn't so bad for regular ninjas who did patrols, guard duties, or assault missions. However, the Hunter Corps detested and feared a lack of information. About four out of five hunter ninja deaths could be traced to bad information, so everyone in the corps had good reason to be leery about a lack of information.
Naruto gave the scant information another look over hoping to find any minuscule fact that he might have overlooked. Unfortunately, the only witnesses to Jun Bakura's crimes were civilians who barely knew the difference between a handsign and kunai. The man's rank was based on what Intel could piece together from the various eye-witness accounts and police reports filed about the crimes.
After failing to find any overlooked facts, Naruto set about planning how he was going to catch Jun. Not exactly an easy task since Jun apparently didn't have a home base, and it would be rather futile to just randomly wander in the areas of Jun's attacks. Naruto quickly pulled out an atlas and went to the map showing Jun's range of attacks. He then covered the map with a nearly see through piece of graph paper and marked down each area that Jun had hit. Unfortunately, the attacks were too uniform for Naruto to find any likely areas to search.
Naruto wasn't deterred by this and he immediately started connecting the raid sites. Suddenly a pattern appeared. The path of attacks came near a small town six times, but the town itself was never attacked. Immediately, Naruto pulled out a reference on the various cities and towns in Fire country and looked up Jun's potential base of operations. According to the reference, that particular town was a rather rough place that was pretty much run by small time crime lords. The Fire Daimyo let criminals live in that town because it was small and out of the way place. This also made it just the sort of place that a person like Jun Bakura would go to for sanctuary.
Iruka walked into his classroom and looked at his students one last time. Hopefully, he'd never see them as an academy student again. It was Iruka's dream to be the first teacher in the academy to get every single one of his students to pass the true genin exam. It probably was a pipe dream, but he could still dream. After giving the class another once over, Iruka pulled out his list of teams and began to read them off. "Team 6 is composed of Hinata Hyuga, Ino Yamanaka, and Mimi Yamano. For Team 7 we have Kiba Inuzuka, Sakura Hurano, and Choji Akimichi. Team 8 has Shino Aburame, Shikimaru Nara, and Sai. For the next team we have" and so on as Iruka finished naming off the teams.
Immediately there was a great deal of complaining from the guys. As one of them put it, "It's totally unfair that the real kunoichis are on a separate team while we get stuck with the pseudo kunoichis." Iruka might have been more sympathetic to the guys if it hadn't been for the headache they were causing.
There had always been a little bit of friction between the guys and the girls in the academy. Most who noticed this tension simply considered to be a result of the gender divide that most kids had at that age. Unfortunately, the juvenile battle of the sexes had taken a much more heated direction among this year's class. The cause was a casual comment from Naruto during one of his visits about most of the girls in the class. His exact words were: "What good is eye candy if its dependent on you for protection and it's supposed to be watching your back?"
Ino, Hinata, and Mimi had understood that Naruto was giving them sound advice about how it's more important for a kunoichi to worry about her skills than to worry about her looks. Most of the girls in the class either ignored Naruto's words or twisted them to suit their world view. However, most of the boys had taken Naruto's words to heart and realized that those words could just as easily apply to them if they didn't train. Needless to say, joint classes had been even more exasperating than in previous years.
As soon as the guys calmed down a bit, Iruka said, "Each team is built around a particular purpose. Some, like Team 7 and 8, are general teams meant to fulfill a wide variety of missions. Others, like Team 6, are specialized in two or three related fields in order to handle situations that a general team can't handle." Naturally, Kiba was about to make a rather rude remark. However, Mimi cut Kiba off by hitting him with a senbon needle coated in a mild paralyzing agent.
Seeing a chance to get things back on track, and let out his inner prankster at the same time, Iruka calmly said, "Try to be less noticeable next time you're putting a dog to sleep Mimi. Now then, your teachers will be here after lunch to pick you up. Try not to send any of them into the mental rehab facilities." The class was a lot quieter as they tried to deal with the shock of Mr. Strict, as they affectionately dubbed Iruka, joking.
For the most part, the new genin passed the time until their instructors arrived peacefully. There were a few snide remarks here and there by some of the popular girls about Team 6. While the members of Team 6 didn't pay attention to these comments, many of the boys directed their killing intent at the air heads making the remarks. As far as the boys were concerned, the other girls in the class had no right to talk about Team 6 like that.
Eventually, the time flew by and the instructors started to arrive. Koyuki was the first one to reach the classroom and she calmly said, "Would Team 6 please come with me." Many of the girls shot jealous glares at Team 6 for landing one of the three Ladies from Hades as their instructor. There were no vocal complaints from the other girls due to the killing intent from the guys. If it had been Kurenai or Anko the killing intent wouldn't be there since the boys would have been drooling over them. Koyuki was just as attractive as the other two members of the Ladies, but she was Naruto's girl and slobbering over someone you know is another man's girl just wasn't done. It went against the code.
The girls, glad to be able to leave, quickly got up and followed Koyuki out of the classroom. Koyuki quietly led her team to the library where she figured that they'd have some peace and quiet. As soon as they were in the library, Koyuki motioned for her students to sit down. She then gave the girls a soft smile and said, "First off, I'd like to say that I'm impressed with the progress you three made this last year at the academy and I would like to say that I'm proud to be your Jonin instructor."
"Unfortunately, I can't say that I'm to instructor just yet. As you know, there's one final test you three have to pass in order to truly be genin. My test, while different from Ebisu's test, will test you three in many of the same areas. But, don't think that my test will be any easier. In order to pass my test you three must spot a civilian couple, replace yourselves with the girlfriend, give the man a kiss without him suspecting the replacement, and make it back to the academy without being caught."
Just like Koyuki expected, all of her students were shocked by her test. Mimi was the first to over come her shock and she quickly shouted out, "What kind of test is that Koyuki? Isn't this supposed to be a test of teamwork?" Ino and Hinata quickly nodded their heads to show their support.
Koyuki gave her students a small grin and replied, "You three already have decent teamwork so it would be unfair to grade you three solely on that. Besides, you'll need you teamwork to complete this test. Iruka probably mentioned that some teams have specific purposes. The purpose of Team 6 is infiltration, assassination, and sabotage. Three ninja skills that kunoichi are uniquely suited for compared to shinobi. While it is unsavory, we often have get close some disgusting pigs in order to kill them. Luckily, genjutsu allows us to stay pure while we get close enough to our targets. This test will test you three on your teamwork, infiltration, and fortitude. Would you like to take the test now or tomorrow?"
Naturally, they younger members of Team 6 huddled together to make their decision. After a few minutes of busy discussion, the trio turned around and Hinata firmly said, "We want to get this over with, so we'll take the test now." None of them were thrilled with the idea of their first kiss being from a test and it turned their stomachs. However, they all wanted to be true kunoichis and wouldn't complain.
Haruna was sitting at the kitchen table sipping a cup of tea and reading the newspaper when Ino came home. Normally, Haruna wouldn't have paid much attention to this, but Ino's footsteps sounded rather annoyed. The Vegetable princess put down her paper and asked, "What's wrong Ino? You're usually not this annoyed." It was a little strange for Haruna to act like a concerned sister, but it was something that she had found herself doing more and more these days.
Ino sat down on the opposite side of the table and moodily replied, "Its Koyuki. At first I was excited that I had her as my Jonin instructor. After all, she's so good! But then, she gave us her idea of a test! Can you believe that she had my team substitute ourselves with someone's girlfriend and steal a kiss from them?"
Now that Haruna could easily believe. She then quickly asked, "So Ino. Did your team pass its test or not?"
Ino quickly replied, "Of course my team passed the test! There's no way that any of us would get sent back to the academy. We weren't about to give up just because our test was distasteful to us."
A small smile crossed Haruna's face and she said, "That's probably what Koyuki was trying to see if you would do." Haruna sighed when she saw the confused look on Ino's face and proceeded to explain. "I might not have spent as much time with Koyuki as you have Ino, but I can understand her thinking. She obviously wanted to make sure that you were prepared to do what you need to do in the future."
The blond kunoichi thought about Haruna's words and then said, "I think I understand, but something doesn't make sense. Koyuki never put any emphasis on seduction when she trained me and my teammates this past year. She pretty much stuck with chakra exercises, teamwork exercises, and a few jutsus."
Haruna shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Like I said, she wanted to make sure that you were prepared. My tutors didn't start me off with politics and advanced tactics. They started teaching me the basics. Koyuki was likely doing the same."
Ino nodded her head and gave Haruna a big smile. "Thanks for talking to me Haruna," Ino said, "It's easier talking to you about these things than it is talking to mom or dad. I guess it's less awkward since you're closer to my age and aren't a ninja. Plus, I know you won't blab everything to your friends." Ino might like to gossip from time to time, but not nearly as much as her mother. She then quietly whispered, "It almost like having a big sister."
That admission from Ino shocked Haruna. No one had ever thought of her like a sister before and Haruna just didn't know how to respond. Her world had been constantly changing ever since she had arrived in Konoha. First she gets a true friend in Koyuki. Then she was allowed to choose who she would stay with. Now, Ino admits that she thought of Haruna as a sister. It was all so confusing for the princess. After a few seconds of trying to sort it all out, Haruna said the only thing that could come to her. "Thanks Ino, I feel the same way."
After Ino left the table, Haruna started to wonder why she had said that. Then it hit her. She really did consider Ino to be her sister. How it had happened, Haruna didn't have a clue. All she knew was that somehow Ino had managed to get into her heart.
It took Naruto about a week to arrive at the godforsaken town he thought Jun Bakura might be using as a base. There were signs of street fights and killings all throughout the town. Pretty much every store, hotel, tavern, and brothel had at least one dead body outside or blood smears on the doors. Normally, a hunter ninja wouldn't have their headband showing so prominently. Naruto was wearing his headband on his forehead with a back bandana under for one reason: intimidation. Most criminals feared ninjas and thus be more willing to cooperate.
Naruto knew he needed to get information from one of the local scum and headed towards the tavern that was the most banged up. Those places tended to be the best location to find some lowlife willing to sell out another criminal for a dead dog. Naruto felt a twitch coming on when he saw that the tavern's name was the Slug's Bosom. He made a note to mention the name of the tavern in his mission report. Hopefully, Sarutobi would allow it to 'slip' out to Tsunade and the Slug Princess could show the owner her appreciation of the name.
Once in the tavern, Naruto made his way to an empty barstool and waited for the barkeeper to come around. As soon as the old barkeeper arrived, Naruto slipped the man a few hundred ryo. He also quietly added, "A young man named Jun Bakura is being a bit of a thorn in the local governor's side. Any information on the pest would be much appreciated."
The barkeeper had a scowl on his face and obviously didn't like the idea of selling out a fellow criminal to a ninja. However, the money and the subtle threat that Jun was drawing unnecessary attention the area won the barkeeper over in the end. In a gruff manner, the barkeeper spat out, "Bakura lives on Whore's Way, shows up for a day or two every 15 days or so and then heads out. Should be back tomorrow now leave."
Naruto left the tavern without saying a word. The kind of people who infested places like this weren't the sort to accept pleasantries. He quickly made his way down the street, which had earned its colorful name from all the brothels that lined it, to Jun's house. Now that Naruto knew where his target's base was all that was left was to wait for Jun to show up. The barkeeper could be stretching the truth, so Naruto had decided to stake the place. Apparently Naruto's instincts were correct because Jun came walking up the street about an hour after Naruto had arrived. Jun walked up the steps and quickly entered his house.
Naruto waited until after midnight before he made his move. Ever so silently, Naruto climbed up the steps making sure to step exactly where Jun had walked. There was always the possibility of an alarm system set up on the steps. When Naruto reached the front door he pulled out his pickpocket set and quickly picked the door lock. He then entered Jun's house and looked around for where Jun was staying.
This perfect textbook assassination was derailed when a small black cat walked down the stairs. Before Naruto could do anything, the cat let out a loud hiss and ran up the stairs. Naruto knew that Jun was almost certainly alerted to his presence now. He quickly pulled out two kunai and abandoned stealth for speed. With luck, Naruto would still be able to get Jun without the boy being fully prepared for the assault. As soon as Naruto burst through the bedroom door he cast a genjutsu over the entire room.
Unfortunately, Jun was already up and armed. The criminal also caught on to the fact that there was a genjutsu up and quickly canceled it. However, the cancellation process gave Naruto enough time to very close to Jun. If it had taken Jun a second longer, Naruto would have killed him right then and there. Sadly for Naruto, Jun was able to roll away from the kunai thrust and then jump out of the window. Naruto quickly gave chase and ran after Jun like a predator.
Jun ran out of town and muttered to himself as he briefly looked over his shoulder at Naruto. "This guy doesn't know when to quit." Although Jun meant it to be demeaning, the ease with which Naruto stayed on his tale scared the criminal. Naruto was obviously a hunter ninja and his usage of genjutsu was really scary. Jun had nearly been trapped by Naruto's genjutsus several times and had escaped each time by the skin on his nose. If he didn't do something soon, Naruto would kill him.
Without warning, Jun jumped in the air and spun around to face Naruto. While in midair, Jun popped a large purple pill into his mouth. Jun landing in front of Naruto and quickly removed his eye patch revealing a Sharingan eye. Naruto couldn't believe what he was seeing. The Sharingan wasn't supposed to exist anymore except for the single eye that Kakashi had!
A smirk appeared on Jun's face when he saw Naruto pause. He couldn't see Naruto's face because of the hunter's mask, but it was easy to figure out that Naruto was shocked. In a low voice Jun said, "I see you recognize this eye. Since you're from Konoha you must know what its powers are. After all, you leaf ninjas were so afraid of its powers that slaughtered the Uchiha Clan over it. The man who gave me this eye told me all about its secrets. There's no way you can beat me now."
The pace of battle quickly changed as Naruto went on the defensive. Naruto seriously doubted his ability to mix his genjutsu with his taijutsu effectively in this fight. It was simply smarter with the Sharingan's ability to see through genjutsu to save the energy for later.
After dogging a fireball, Naruto decided to try and figure out an attack plan. Simply waiting for Jun to drop down exhausted wasn't a reasonable answer. Naruto didn't want to use one of the few long distance combat jutsus he knew out of fear that Jun would dodge and send it right back at him. How was one to fight someone if they could mimic all of your moves?
The answer suddenly came to Naruto like a bolt of lighting. If some could, and did, mimic someone else, then the person being mimicked could trick the mimicker. Naruto immediately started a jutsu and to his joy, Jun immediately started copying the jutsu. A small grin crossed Naruto's face as he finished the last handsign and his body was racked with pain. Even though the pain, Naruto couldn't help smiling at Jun's shocked expression and agonized expression. Naruto had tricked Jun into performing a suicide jutsu. The fool should have known better than to just copy a jutsu without knowing exactly what it was.
Due to his bloodline, Naruto lived through the jutsu. Naruto immediately headed over to Jun's corpse and quickly sealed it inside a scroll. How the man had gotten a supposedly extinct Sharingan eye needed to be figured out, and the more information the corpse cutters had the better.
Asusa and Sarutobi were holding private conference in Asusa office when Naruto suddenly entered the office. Naruto pulled out his sealing scroll and said, "Sorry for interrupting you two, but there's something you both need to see." Without waiting for a reply, Naruto unsealed Jun's body and pulled the head up so that the Sharingan eye was plainly visible.
The two leaders immediately forgot about their previous conversation and stared at the Sharingan eye. Sarutobi was the first to regain his wits. "Who else knows about this?"
Naruto immediately said, "Just the three of us besides whoever gave the eye to Jun. I knew you both needed to know this so I came here strait away."
Asusa then stated, "Understandable Naruto. Reseal the corpse into the scroll and leave it here. Do not mention the Sharingan eye at all in your main report. You burnt the body and returned the head, Understood? Here, go to the black room and fill out a triple six form." Asusa had tossed Naruto the key to the secure office used for writing classified reports. Naturally, Naruto caught the key and he nodded his head. Sarutobi dismissed Naruto once he had resealed Jun's corpse.
As soon as Naruto was gone, Asusa turned to Sarutobi and said, "I'm glad that Naruto informed us of this unexpected development so swiftly. How could one of those eyes still be in existence? We burned all of the Uchiha corpses just to avoid this potential problem."
Sarutobi put his pipe in his mouth and said, "I don't know Asusa. However, this is a disturbing situation. The other villages rightly respected the Sharingan and would have done almost anything to get their hands on it. If they catch word that someone has been implanting Sharingan eyes, I don't want to think of the manhunt that will be arranged to locate whoever did this."
Asusa's eyes narrowed and he said, "Could this be the work of Orrochimaru? He always was obsessed with the Sharingan and was completely amoral in his medical research. Could he have found a way to grow a Sharingan eye?"
The old Hokage thought about it for a few minutes and then wearily said, "I honestly don't know. Is such a thing even possible? Also, if Orrochimaru could create a Sharingan eye, why would he give it to a low level ninja like this Jun Bakura? I'll take this down to research for examination. We can't do anything until we have actual facts instead of mere speculation."
Once Sarutobi had left the office, Asusa tried to figure out what he should do. This whole situation was extremely troublesome. What if there were more of these rouge Sharingan eyes out there? None of his hunters were trained to fight against the Sharingan since the Uchiha Clan was extinct. How could he get all of his hunters prepared to fight another Sharingan user without letting this news out?
Naruto had decided to just walk around the village after he had filled out all the paperwork. Everywhere Naruto went he was greeted by the villagers. The villagers' respect wasn't as grating on Naruto's nerves as it had been when he was younger. By now, Naruto had realized that they wouldn't stop being so respectful to him. However, he was at least starting to earn that respect.
Around sunset Naruto decided to go get some dinner and stopped at Ichiraku Ramen. Naruto loved Ichiraku's the most out of all the restaurants in Konoha. It was the only place that served his favorite food and treated him like a regular customer. The ramen stand was almost empty when Naruto arrived, but that didn't matter. Mr. Teuchi and Ayame were there and they were more than happy to whip up a few bowels for their number 1 customer. Dinner lasted about an hour and then Naruto went home.
Something felt wrong as Naruto approached his house. His senses were telling him that someone was inside the house. Naruto checked the front door for any signs of forced entry, but there were none. However, that didn't mean that someone couldn't have forced their way in from another entry point. Naruto carefully opened the door and slipped inside.
Once Naruto was inside, his nose picked up Koyuki's scent. Almost immediately Naruto relaxed and started removing his weapons. There was no way for anyone to mimic another person's scent; especially in a manner that could fool his or an Inuzuka's nose. Naruto then walked over to the refrigerator to pull out a cold soda and discovered that it was completely restocked. This sight brought a smile to Naruto as Koyuki had obviously been thoughtful enough to go grocery shopping for him.
After Naruto finish his soda, he chucked the can into the trash bin and decided to find Koyuki. She must have a reason why she hadn't greeted him yet and he wanted to know what it was. Naruto calmly tracked Koyuki down growing more and more suspicious as her trail lead him closer to his bedroom. When Naruto opened his bedroom door he immediately noticed Koyuki lying in the middle of his bed. The thing that really got Naruto's attention was the provocative nightie Koyuki was wearing, along with a ribbon wrapped all around and tied in a bow between her breasts.
Naruto was frozen at the sight of Koyuki. He may have seen her in a lot less many times, that that sight was so alluring. Koyuki opened her eye and smiled at the sight of Naruto standing dumbstruck in the doorway. She then softly said, "Good evening Naruto. I was wondering when you would get home. How about you unwrap your welcome home gift that I've prepared for you?"
In a dumbfounded manner, Naruto replied, "Welcome home gift?" His brain hadn't been able to finish rebooting from the slight of Koyuki just yet and so Naruto was a bit slow on the uptake.
Koyuki found Naruto's stupor amusing and let out a small chuckle. "Don't you remember dear," Koyuki said with her mirth evident in her eyes, "What I said when you asked me to stay here with you. On the day I move in you would have me as your woman instead of just as your girlfriend. My things have already been stowed in this house and I ended the lease on my apartment. From this night forward, I give my body to you Naruto to do whatever you want with it."
Naruto quickly got over his stupor and started to disrobe. He then crawled over to Koyuki and started to remove the ribbon. All of Naruto's worries disappeared as his world shrunk down to his bedroom and his beautiful, loving, princess.
